Death Is Only The Beginning Improved
by BlueSonicScrew
Summary: TORCHWOOD Something terrible happens to Gwen but how does she cope when the nightmares become real?I've already wrote this story but I thought it needed a bit a tweaking so here's the improved version : Hope you like!
1. A Normal Investagation?

Chapter 1 -

Gwen Cooper groaned in frustration and turned in her bed to face her digital clock , 2:01am.

Some idiot was continuesly banging on her front door at stupid o'clock in the morning and she wasn't happy. She clambered out of her warm bed,slipping out of her nightie and pulled an old T-shirt over her head then swiggled into a pair of jeans flung over a chair near the bedroom door and into a pair of trainers which she always kept beside her bed 'becase you never know when your gunna need them',

"Will you wait?!", she called as the knocking continued.

She unbolted the door and swung it open, "What the hell do you...", she stopped in mid sentence. There stood Captain Jack Harkness in his usual uniform, absolutly dripping wet from the rain and the Torchwood SUV was visible behind him,

"Jack! What's happened, what's wrong?",

"Time for work",

"Why didn't you call me?"

"We never had time. Tosh had a track on an alien and we didn't want to loose it."

Gwen grabbed a coat from the rack just behind her and flung it on. She shut the door and followed Jack down the steps,

"Your lucky Rhys wasn't it!", she called to him, "He would've gone for you, your lucky he works nights!"

Gwen joined Tish and Ianto in the back of the suprisingly warm SUV. Owen put his foot on the excelirator and they were off down the street.

Ianto pulled a flask out of a bag which was near his feet and poured Gwen a cup of steaming liquid which she accepted greatfully,

"This is gorgeous! Did you make it yourself?"

She could see Ianto's face blush as they passed street lamps,

"Well I thought I'd try something diffrent instead of my amazing coffee so I chose chicken soup"

Gwen laughed and took another sip, "So what's the emergency?"

Tosh turned from her computer screen to face her, "We saw something crashland near Porthcawl. I've managed to infultrate the police database and there are descriptions and eye-witness accounts of what ever the creature is and I've put together a basic picture of it. That a look at this thing!",

She swung one of the monitors round to show Gwen,

"What the fuck is that?!", she gasped almost spilling the chicken soup which Ianto took off her quickly before she could scold anyone.

It was the scariest thing she had ever seen since working with Torchwood. It looked like a mixture of Gollum, Quasimodo and the faeries they had encountered a few weeks ago and by the measurements on the side of the picture it was about seven feet high. It's skin was a greyish blue and it's eyes. That was the first thing Gwen noticed. They were a fantastic shade of lime green and if you stared long enough it gave you a headache and the weird thing was that this 'creature' had no pupils,

"Right guys we're here", Owen announce, breaking Gwen's thoughts and abruptly stopping the car.

They all collected their boxes of equiptment and followed the sound of the police sirens to the crash site. The place was completely crowed by police officers and forensics who had put up a tent to protect whatever was inside from the pouring rain. A swarm of people had gathered and were now trying to find out what was going on.

Gwen wrapped her coat tighter around her and followed. They passed the usual officers and walked into the tent. The sight that greeted them wasn't plesant but then again she never expected it would be after seeing Tosh's mock up of the alien.

As far as Gwen could tell there were two victims and they were covered in what could only be described as wallpaper paste. Everyone put their boxes down and let Owen do his job,

"By the looks of things", he muttered, "This fucked up alien likes to keeps his food perserved for a bit before feeding"

"So you mean this 'paste' keeps the food fresh and free from decaying?", Jack asked and bent down next to him,

"That's what preservation means Jack"

Jack frowned, "But that means he was planning to come back later for them"

"Looks like it", said Owen as he walked over to the other victim and did the same analysis again, "I can tell you that we have a male and a female but I can't say anymore until we get this shit off them"

"Right then, let do what we do best shall we? Gwen could you help Owen get the stuff off the victims, Tosh could you find anything else out about our 'friend' and Ianto could you take pictures of these guys?"

"What are you going to do?", Tosh asked as she took out her hand held computer from her pocket and began pressing diffrent digits,

Jack smiled, "I'm gunna have a talk with the few people from the crowd. See if anyone knows or saw anything"

Everyone took their orders and split up. Gwen grabbed a pair of gloves out of Owen's box, slipped them on and joined him,

"You like sleeping without the curtains drawn cause you can see everything and you looked gorgeous in that little number," he smirked, "Never seen that one before"

"Because that ones for Rhys and not you", she whispered back and began to scrap the murky paste off the male victims body

Little flashes of light went off as Ianto did as Jack had told him and began to take the pictures they needed later on,

"Nice to know you two are still getting it on since what happened between me and you but what I wanna know is this,", he flicked some of the goo off his trousers, "Who's the better performer?"

Gwen shook her head, "Typically Owen! Always wanting to know how well he-"

Gwen froze, her hands in mid scoop, her eyes wide and frightened,

"Gwen, sweetheart..."

Owen looked from her to the body and back again then it hit him, "Babe-" he began but was cut short by Gwen running out of the tent,

"What the hell happened?", Tosh was looking up from her computer at Owen with a consurned look on her face "What did you say to her?!"

"Tosh shut up will ya'! It Gwen's boyfriend!"

"What Rhys?"

"Yeah,the male victim's Rhys "

TBC


	2. Realisation

Chapter 2 -

Gwen ran as fast as she could out of the tent, the rain blurring her vision,

"Looks like it ain't a pretty sight in there", mumbled a policman who was stood next to Jack.

Jack frowned in confusion and turned round in the direction the man nodded. He could see the silouhette of Gwen running in the opposite direction and he quickly found his feet and ran after her,

"Gwen!"

She couldn't feel the cold or the water soaking through her jeans, all she could feel was the pain and anger that was now beginning to shutting down the rest of her body. She turned a corner and stopped.

Jack managed to catch up with her and few seconds later and found her throwing up over the railing of the bayside. He walked up behind her, "What's wrong?",

She turned her head round, "It killed Rhys, Jack! It killed Rhys!", she sobbed and collapsed.

She slowly stirred and opened her eyes, she blinked several times before jumping out of the bed,

"What the-"

She wasn't in her room as she had expected when she woke but in someone else's and she notice that she was in a pair of joggy bottoms and a massive jumper instead of her jeans and t-shirt. The room held a fold-out sofa bed, a bedside table with a lamp on top, a chest of draws and a rather battered wardrobe.

Gwen walked over to the chest of draws and picked up a picture set in a beautifully craved silver frame. In the foreground was a woman a lot younger than herself wrapped in the arms of a man old enough to be her father. The girl wore a short denim skirt, long leather boots, a multi-coloured stripped scarf and her hair in two plaits. She had the most gorgeous smile across her face helped along by two rows of bright white teeth. The gentleman wore a battered leather jacket, a black jumper and jeans and he was hugging the girl tightly whilst wearing a goofy grin on his face.

Gwen smiled to herself. Despite the obvious age diffrence these two people looked so happy together,

"Old Friends"

Gwen quickly put the framed back down and turned to see Jack looking down at her,

"Sorry, I shouldn't have picked that up",

He smiled at her and sat down on the fold-out bed, patting the patch next to him where Gwen sat down,

"Where am I? How did I get her? Who changed me?!", she asked whilst taking another look around the room,

"Your at Torchwood", he said gently,

She looked up at him confused and he laughed,

"You remeber when you once asked me where I went at night? The answer is here, this is my bedroom! You fainted and we brought you back here. Tosh changed you don't worry."

Gwen smiled slightly and looked ahead of her,

"You alright?"

"My boyfriend's been murdered by a psycotic alien and it's still on the loose but apart from the Jack I'm peachy!"

Jack brought his musclular arms up and hugged her. She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and sobbed into his chest. How could things get any worst?,

"Boss",

Owen's voice echoed through the room as it sounded off the intercom,

"What Owen?", Jacked called back almost sounding agitated,

"I know this may sound like a bad idea right now but it has to be done...",

"Well?"

"Gwen". she looked up when she heard Owen address her,

"I...I'm so sorry baby but I need you to see Rhys' body and I know you don't want to and if I could help it I would but, well, we need to know what happened".

TBC


	3. Rhys

_**Aurthor's** **Notes -** I am soooooo sorry that this is, **1)** Taken so long to write because I have had major writer's block. I think the plot bunnies are hibernating! and **2)** It's so short! But I promise that I'm going to start writing more from this story and the other one that I have going :)_

_Anywho, hope you like this little chapter and plz review cause review are love! Blue x_

* * *

She clung to Jack's shirt as he lead her to the Autopsy Room. She tried not to look into the eyes of the rest of her colliges as she slowly desended the stone steps.

The body of her boyfriend was covered in a white plastic bag, Owen's small metal table of tools and probes stood next to it as if waiting to get on with the job at hand,

"Gwen..."

She looked up through her hair at Owen as he removed her grip from Jack and lead her to the surgical table, "Now I need you to be prepared. I know this ain't easy but..."

She appreciated him trying to comfort her, even if it was in his own, cookey way but even he knew that she could never prepare herself for this.

Gwen nodded and stood tall trying to look more confident as Owen unzipped the body bag and flung the top off.

Her hands met her mouth but now quick enough to cover the shrilling scream,

"Rhys! No!"

His body was shrivelled slight, his stomach almost gone and a few fingers on his rught hand clearly broken but it was his face that made Gwen scream. It was clear that he was petrifed and in an amazing amount of pain when the 'Gollum' alien struck.

She sank to her knees and slapped the tiled floor with the palm of her hands, "Nowa!"

Jack slipped one hand underneath her arms and one hand across her waist and lifted her up with his powerful forearms. She sobbed and hit his chest with her fists, "It's your fault! Your fault!"

He grabbed her wrists and made her look at him, "I know you want to blame someone right now and I won't stop you but I promise you, once we find out how this creature works then we _will_ catch it and we will make it suffer until it _cracks_!".

He turned to Ianto who was leaning against the white wall on the steps watching the spectical below, "Take Gwen and give her the strongest coffee you have".

Ianto nodded and took Gwen away from the captain, taking most of her weight. Even thought she was in hysteria she realised that he was a lot stronger than he looked and followed his steps out of the autopsy room but before they left she heard Jack questioning Owen,

"What the hell happened?!"

"He was partcialy eaten!"

"Thanks Quincey for stating the obvious!"

"It get's worse, Jack"

It went quite and Gwen could see the expression on Jack's face in her mind,

"How could it get worse?!"

Owen coughed before he spoke again, " He was...", he took a deep breath, "He was still alive Jack",

"What?"

"He was still alive when he was being eaten"

Gwen broke away from Ianto and ran to the nearest bathroom where she hurled into the first toilet bowel she managed to get to.


End file.
